Savaterre
Savaterre is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery — Campbell Mattinson's highest honour.
Beechworth.
The Savaterre winery was a pioneer of close-planted viticulture in north-east Victoria, a little-known fact for one simple reason: the wines, in the glass, have always done the talking.
The case.
The laziest statement in wine, now, is the one that mentions Savaterre’s proximity to Giaconda, situated exactly across the road, as it is. Giaconda is as much across the road from Savaterre as vice versa. I make a point of this because the Savaterre vineyard, planted at 7500 vines per hectare, is 30 years old now, and its stripes have not only been earned over and over, but they have been painted clearly and by their own design throughout. Savaterre’s best wine is chardonnay; it proves this effectively every year; it grows and makes excellent, robust Pinot Noir too and, in the past, has produced excellent sagrantino and syrah. Savaterre is – first, foremost and profoundly – a vineyard, grown in buckshot gravels, overlooking the Victorian Alps – but its Frere Cadet Chardonnay, sourced from external Beechworth vineyards, is often too of A Grade standard.
In 2018 Savaterre was added to the Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine (rated Outstanding), proof also that this winery performs not just in the glass, but on the market.
The wines that prove the case.
Savaterre Chardonnay 2024 (Beechworth): There’s flavour in this wine, of course, indeed lots of it, and yet it all tastes like the purest water flowing under the longest bridge. Each aspect is only beautiful because of the others.
Savaterre Chardonnay 2022 (Beechworth): Winefront.
Savaterre Chardonnay 2018 (Beechworth): Winefront.
Savaterre Reserve Pinot Noir 2022 (Beechworth): Winefront.
Savaterre is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery – the highest honour awarded by Australian wine critic Campbell Mattinson. 10-Star status recognises one thing: the quality of the wine in the glass, every glass, across the range. The full list of 10-Star Wineries constitutes Australia's Best Wineries.
